The Safehouse

A Guide to soloing a Rogue

To start I would like to preface this article by saying that there are very few games where a rogue can solo well into the mid-level ranges. This game has given the rogue several solo options, all of which have worked for me.

The Iternface

First you have to look at what skills a rogue has and which to place in your combat bar. At level 30 my solo combat bar has changed very little from when I set it up initially. Yours can very slightly depending on skills you like over others that do the same effect.

Slot 1 - Sinister Strike This skill should be the first, and most often, used skill used by any rogue, solo or grouped. It is our fastest refreshing skill and adds extra damage done with our ordinary attack. It also awards a combo bonus point which we will get into later. I religiously smash this button as my leading attck if I am not trying to do any special pulling or attack combo.

Slot 2 - Kick At level 12 the rogue receives the Kick skill. I keep this one up front as a means to interupt casters and won't allow them to cast another spell in that class for 5 seconds. In a battle with a rogue 5 seconds is an eternity if you depend on spells to do your damage. I can usually finish off most caster class mobs in the following combo sequence. Open fight with SS, let it refresh, SS, let it refresh, Kick, SS, let it refresh, SS, quaf a Stamina Regen potion and hit my finishing move.

Slot 3 - Eviscerate This is my most used Finishing Move. It uses build up Combo Points to allow a rogue to do a single strike of huge damage. In fights with MOBs over level 20 I found I had plenty of time to accumulate all 5 of my Combo Points and release this skill as a finishing blow to end the fight. As you use this skill you get a feel for the amount of damage per Combo Point it will deal. You can then gage on when best to use the skill on say Runners or Casters.

Slot 4 - Backstab Not much can be said about this skill. It is a disappointment to me in the amount of damage I see Vs. the refresh time Vs. the amount of energy it cost to use the skill. I keep this skill on my list mostly for runners. Once they turn to run, I can usually hit this button and they are dead before they are out of range. In solo combat this skill has to be use in combination with a stun skill, usually gouge. But the amount of energy used by the combination of gouge and then backstab, to me, make it a useless combo for soloing.

Slot 5 - Gouge Gouge can be used in several different ways depending on the situation. In a straight melee fight, gouge is a great stun that allows time to setup other moves, backstab being the most common. Just remember that the gouge stun is broken if damage is done to the target. So be careful of procing weapons and poisons. In a fight with a caster, gouge is a secondary spell interupter. Unlike Kick it won't stop them from casting again, and in most cases as soon as the stun effect is broken the caster will cast on you immediately. But with its 4 second stun it gives you time to move out of line of site. Finally, gouge can be used as an emergancy escape for those fights gone bad. A combo of gouge and then sprint can usually get an almost dead rogue to safety in a hurry.

Slot 6 - Evasion There are two concerns for a rogue soloing, the first is doing as much damage as they can in as short amount of time as prossible. The second is to avoid being damaged for as long as possible. This skill allows just that. Evasion increases a rogues dodge skill making it harder to get hit. This skill is often used when adds join a fight or when taking on targets severl levels above your current level. It evens the playing field so to speak.

Slot 7 - Vanish From time to time a rogue will get into a spot where death is the only outcome, and it will usually be his. As a last resort the rogue can use this skill. It allows them to enter a super stealth mode and will give you 10 seconds to get out of the mess you got yourself into.

Slot 8 - Slice and Dice This is a finishing move that I use if a fight is going to last a longer amount of time than one cycle of my Combo Points. This skill will speed up a rogues attack allowing them to do even more damage than normal. It is also fairly long lasting as skills go and if used early in a fight can bring larger level MOBs down in fairly short order.

Slot 9 - Rupture Another one of those finishing moves used when a fight is expected to be long, or if your facing a "runner". This move will create a DOT effect that again is fairly long lasting. Used in the opening rounds of a fight, or in later rounds on runners, it can add a significant amount of damage to a rogues normal attack. And on runners it can kill them as they flee avoiding that nasty need to use slot 7 Wink

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Slot 0 - Expose Armor The last of the long battle finishing moves, expose armor is used to lower an attackers armor rating. I use this one only when facing MOB classes in the warrior or paladin class. You can usually tell in the first couple rounds how much damage your doing to a MOB. If it looks like your being out damaged, use this skill to even the playing field.

Slot -(11) - Cross Bow This is my pulling slot. What ever weapon you would normally use for pulling you put here. I have a pulling weapon for those encouters where if I were to run into the camp I would pull 5, but if I pull from a distance I can get 2 at the most and I know I can always handle 2.

Slot =(12) - Sprint What can you say about this skill. Nothing like being able to get out of a bad situation fast, and I do mean fast. This skill has saved this rogue more times than I can count. I even use it as part of my exploration key setup. If I run into trouble just poking around a zone for the first time, I punch sprint and can usually make it to safety.

Rogue 101

Now that we have the key setup and we see some of the skills, lets learn about what makes a rogue, a rogue. First, in battle a rogue is pure damage. They serve no other purpose. Sure we can scout areas for the group, or we can do special pulls to help bring certain mobs. But when it comes right down to it, a rogue is all about damage. To this end a rogue is all about skills used and timing of using said skills. Simply pushing attack and sitting back is not going to make you a damage machine. Your weapons are probably just as good and just as fast as anyone elses weapons. But the use of all our damage skills pushes us way over the top in terms of getting a fight over very fast. But in order to do a skill a rogue has to rely on energy. The yellow bar under the rogues picture tells how much energy is available for skill use, and energy management is the most important thing a rogue can do. You are not doing yourself or your party any good if you spend the entire fight out of energy and unable to execute an offensive skill or a finishing blow. The good rogue can enter a fight and be a damage dealer. An excellent rogue can enter a fight be the difference between victory and defeat. This is all achieved through energy management.

Use your early levels as a rogue to understand how much each skill takes in energy. Watch how much damage you can do with different skills Vs. the amount of energy it takes to do a skill. Know that you can hit the SS button three times and do 400 points of damage before you run out of energy and in the same amount of time press the gouge and backstab button and only do 150 points of damage and still be just as out of energy. Knowing how to get the most damage out of what energy you have is what makes you an excellent rogue.

Often times when soloing a rogue you may be tempted to smash that SS key as fast and as furious as you can to get a fight over with as fast as you can. But the second part to being an excellent rogue is knowing when to use energy and when not to use energy. Knowing your opponent is the next major step in a rogues life. Are you fighting a pure melee opponent? Can this opponent heal? Does he cast? Does he run? These things all effect how you use your skills and when you use your skills. For example, you come across a Horde warrior your same level. Well you know you can kill things your own level fairly quickly and you don't have to worry about him casting spells. But what you do have to worry about is him running for help. The Horde has no scruples in battle. If they are going to lose they will run. So you want to make sure you have enough Combo points and energy left at the end of the fight to execute a Rupture. This way even if they do run, they will die of their wounds long before they reach help.

The last lesson to learn in being an excellent rogue is when to fall back and regroup. This is not running away, a rogue doesn't do that, he just regroups and finds a new stratagy to use the next time. Give yourself enough options to get out of any situation. If your fighting a caster and your going to die, do a quick gouge to stun them for 4 seconds and then hit Sprint. By the time they come too, you will be long gone and thinking up a better way to enter that fight and win. If help arrives for them and you find yourself in an uneven fight, Horde love an uneven fight, then hit Vanish and watch their slack jawed expression as you calmly walk out of the area.

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